So maybe we can cool it on the high-minded rhetoric about racism in the GOP. As one example from the site, how about:

GOP mocks the "party of Lincoln"
... it boggles the mind how badly the Republicans have botched the race issue over the past month.

After Lott's ouster, many Republicans crowed about exorcising their heritage of racial intolerance. The spin (eagerly lapped up by the media) was that a new generation of Republicans (the neocons) had asserted themselves over the Old Guard (the paleocons). Lott had to resign in disgrace, and a new, more tolerant Republican Party had arisen like a phoenix from the ashes of the GOP's Dixie heritage.

...It's been said a million times, but bears repeating: The GOP may or may not be racist, but that's not really the issue. Its Southern base will respond to coded appeals to racist impulses -- be they Confederate flags or talk of "quotas" at the University of Michigan.

May or not be racist. Do let us know.

Meanwhile, today, we have this on the subject of Democratic chances in three Southern state elections in 2003:

...Democrats in Mississippi are in interesting breed -- far to the right of the national party. As such, there's a tendency amongst many who visit this site to dismiss them (and other Southern Dems) as DINOs (like Landrieu).

...It doesn't matter whether these southern Democrats are your "type" of Democrat. We must win these races to improve our chances in 2004.

Fine. Then maybe it doesn't matter that some of these Southerners are not "my" type of Republican.

Newspaper reports suggest that in Georgia, rural whites who normally vote Democratic switched over on the prospect of a referendum on the Confederate flag. Were these acceptable Democrats until last November? And are there no rural whites in Mississippi with similar views? Is it the Democratic strategy to rely on the support of secret racists? Please.

I'm in the "educate and fumigate" school - drag this stupid flag issue out in the open, and let the people speak. They may surprise us. And if they end up appalling us, well, repeat the "educate" cycle. But the cram-down back room deal that changed the Georgia flag last time obviously did not satisfy.